


it's always sunny on the fifth floor (even when it pours)

by deuxmond



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Bickering, Chaos, Fluff, Johnny Is a Cat Person, M/M, Mostly Gen, Sitcom, Slice of Life, but mostly bickering, but there's a tiny bit of romance, random movie references??, they're all idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28733331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deuxmond/pseuds/deuxmond
Summary: Mark couldn't say he was expecting his evening to be interrupted by a stray cat, an irritable Doyoung, and the nuisance that Donghyuck is; but he's learned to expect the unexpected.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	it's always sunny on the fifth floor (even when it pours)

**Author's Note:**

> welcome welcome! i had a lot of fun writing this—i've always imagined that there would be mayhem in the nct dorms, and i wanted to capture that somewhat :3 
> 
> p.s: this is loosely inspired by the recent v-live where hyuck hugged daegal so much, i almost passed away from the cuteness. except this time there's a cat. and more chaos.
> 
> p.s.s: [shel](https://twitter.com/marksvitamins?s=20)—thank you for being such a lovely beta! i owe you one (many ones, actually)!
> 
> enjoy!

“I think that sounds about right,” Johnny tsks, underlining lyrics on the page with a rather lifeless ballpoint pen.

Strumming idly on his acoustic guitar, Mark hums and nods, staring out the window of the fifth floor. Rain slithers down the glass in stripes, blurring Seoul’s generally clear lights—but it’s calming. Mark feels at peace in his little dorm, doing what he loves in the comfort of his room rather than in the studio. “Do you wanna order some dinner?” He sets his guitar down on the bed and stands to stretch. 

“Yeah bro, I’m starving.” Johnny slumps back onto the mattress, bouncing at the impact. “I’m gonna text Hyuck and have him bring food on his way back. Does sushi sound good?”

Mark’s mouth resembles an ‘o’, as he nods fervently. “Sounds heavenly.”

Johnny eyerolls at his enthusiasm, bringing his phone above his face, dropping it square on his nose, and groaning, “I swear to god…”

“Instant karma.” Mark laughs at the spectacle, pacing over to the window to trace little doodles into the window with his index finger. It’s coated with a nice layer of condensation, and a grin tugs at the corner of Mark’s mouth as he regards his poorly-drawn smiley-face. It’s pretty difficult to mess up a smiley-face, but let’s just say Mark isn’t the _most_ inclined when it comes to fine art. 

He stands there for a few minutes, watching through a haze at tiny cars on the road below, yellow taxis bleeding in and out of his vision. The amount of umbrellas moving on the sidewalk is amusing from his birds-eye view. It’s like they're moving on their own, floating along the pavement. Usually Mark’s spirits dampen when there’s no sun in the sky, and he prefers cloudless days to grey ones. But maybe his perspective is changing. The pitter-patter of droplets on the windowpane soothes him; the icy sensation on his fingertips as he touches the glass wakes him up. It’s a happy medium.

“I’m taking a nap, wake me up when he gets here.”

Mark whips around, and Johnny gives him a lazy thumbs up before shutting his eyes. With a bountiful ten hours of sleep from last night, Mark is still wide awake. “Yo, mind if I work on this song while you’re out?” 

Johnny cracks an eye open, contemplating, but he obliges with a slight nod. “I guess a lullaby would be nice.”

“I can’t promise you that.” Mark scrunches his nose, and Johnny laughs out of his nose, succumbing to sleep. 

Lines indent the tips of Mark’s fingers as he moves them across the fretboard, forming new chords and new licks for a new song. He allows himself to get completely lost in his own world, subvocalizing to himself and bobbing his head to the beat. It’s been a while since he’s played this much, and his hands start to sting, but it’s a nice feeling. Just as Mark attempts to jot down notes with the useless pen—and ultimately gets frustrated with it—the door barges open. 

Enter a very soaked Donghyuck: “Christ, it’s like a monsoon got lost and ended up in South Korea,” he breathes out, leaning his umbrella against the door and kicking off his shoes. The takeout is placed on the foot of the bed, where Johnny is still somehow out cold—but Mark notices something suspicious. 

There’s a peculiar lump in the breast of Donghyuck’s coat. And it’s moving. Meowing?

“...Hyuck?” Mark follows the man’s movements with a bewildered gaze. It’s pretty obvious what Mark is on about, but Donghyuck doesn’t catch on—or rather, pretends not to—because he pulls the coat closer to his torso and hurries to the bathroom. “Are you gonna explain the _thing_ inside your raincoat?!” he calls after him. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Donghyuck bellows, voice muffled behind the door. A faint mewl echoes, and Mark cannot believe his own eyes. A little black paw emerges from the small crack of the door’s threshold and scratches the carpet, and a hiss from Donghyuck comes after. “Luna! Stop that!” 

Mark pinches the bride of his nose. _He already named it?!_

Johnny bumbles awake and clears his throat, rubbing sleep from his eyes to examine all the commotion. But he sees the bag near his feet first and launches himself at it. “My dear California roll! Hallowed be thy name!” he wines with a faux accent.

Mark doesn’t know what to scoff at first—the rug being reduced to threads, or the six-foot-tall sushi worshipper to his left. It’s nightmarish. But it turns out he doesn’t have to make that decision, because Donghyuck promptly cracks open the door and pokes his head out. 

“I swear—I was just going to keep her in here ‘till I could bring her to the shelter!” He grimaces. “But she won’t stop clawing at everything. I promise I’ll get her out of here as soon as I can… I just couldn’t leave her out in the rain like that; I’m not a psycho.”

“I beg to differ.” Mark pushes the fringe away from his forehead. 

“Oh, says the one who likes _fish eggs_ on his avocado roll. You kinda look like a fish, too. So that’s like… borderline cannibalism,” Donghyuck snickers, letting the cat trail after him as he moves past Mark and smiles at Johnny, whose mouth is so full that it’s comparable to a squirrel collecting nuts for winter. 

“Oh so we have a cat now?” Johnny swallows, and speaks way too nonchalantly for Mark’s comfort. 

“That’s all you have to say about this?!” Mark squawks, side-eyeing the feline when it jumps up onto the bed.

“Well I’ve always wanted one. And Ten’s always bragging about Louis. So it’s about time I have something to brag back about.” Johnny’s eyes light up when the cat flops onto his lap, purring up a storm. “Don’t tell Ten this, but I think this cat is twenty times cuter than Louis.”

Donghyuck takes a chair right next to Mark, chopsticks hanging from his lips. He finally takes the raincoat off and hangs it on the back of the chair. “Darn… I guess we need to keep her now that Johnny’s attached!” His expression is impish, facing Mark as he continues, “We should go out and buy her some supplies tonight shouldn’t we, Johnny?” 

“Well, of course.”

Mark narrows his eyes to slits, knowing exactly what Donghyuck is planning and knowing he has no way out of it. He tries to no avail, “I’m sure there’s another family that would treat her much better…”

“No way,” Johnny deadpans, accidentally launching a grain of rice from his mouth. His laugh is annoyingly contagious and Mark finds it hard to keep up his frustrated image.

“Well I guess that settles it!” Donghyuck sighs, displaying an obnoxiously gorgeous grin. “Luna loves it here already.” 

Something clicks in Mark’s brain that he didn’t acknowledge before. “You named it… Luna?”

“Yes, is there a problem with that?” He’s defensive. But it’s cute. 

Mark laughs breathily, covering his eyes with his palm. “Like the cat from—”

“—Yes, like the cat from Sailor Moon. Shut up. I think it’s cute.” 

“That makes one of us,” Mark snorts, screeching when Donghyuck reaches out to punch his shoulder. “What was that for?! It’s merely my humble opinion.” He snatches the bag of sushi from the center of the table, reaches in, and takes his avocado roll. 

“Your opinion was not humble nor was it asked for,” Donghyuck says, pulling Mark’s ear. “Now be quiet and eat your sushi.” He pulls back with a playful pout. “And, by the way, I’m not kissing you after you eat that fish larvae.

“You know… you always say that but you never end up going through with it. I must be irresistible.”

“Oh, get your head out of your ass.” 

“Guys! HELP! Luna’s—” Johnny yelps out of nowhere, causing Mark to jump five feet into the air. And my… what a marvelous sight.

The cat is quite literally trying to sit on Johnny’s head, jumping on his shoulders, falling onto the bed, and repeating. “Where the hell did you get this thing? The circus? Was this a trapeze artist’s cat?”

“Oh god—I guess we’ll have to train her—” Donghyuck leaps up from his seat, trying but failing to suppress a snort.

Johnny tries to pry the cat away. “Well hurry up and give her some cat melatonin or something! Do they make cat melatonin?” 

“Definitely not,” Mark croaks, in hysterics. His lung might just burst. 

“What the hell is going on in here?” The door opens without warning for the second time this evening, and everybody freezes. It would make a pretty hilarious photo. 

Doyoung stands in the doorway wearing a bathrobe, with wet hair plastered to his forehead and fists on his hips. The second Mark’s eyes rest on the pair of sparkly flip flops Doyoung has on, he almost cries, bursting into laughter again and watching the situation unfold. 

“Why—Why is there a cat in here?” He scrutinizes Johnny, who tries to look as innocent as he can with the black fluff ball attempting to swat his forearm. His head snaps from person to person like he’s spectating a ping pong match. When nobody can muster up an answer that sounds remotely normal, he continues, “Okay, Let me ask that again… Would any of you guys care to explain the animal next to Johnny?” He asks, the sentence coming out more of a statement than a question. “Taeyong and I were trying to record our portion of the relay cam, but it sounded like Nightmare On Elm Street was happening in the next room over.” 

“Ah, that was my fault. Truly, I’m sorry.” Donghyuck nods and raises his arms above his head in a mock prayer. Teasing Doyoung could probably be considered one of his hobbies at this point. 

Doyoung stares, unimpressed. “What do you mean it’s your fault?”

“I picked up Luna today because it was cold and rainy and I felt bad for her. You’ve seen those animal shelter commercials—they’re sad! I bet you’ve cried to one!”

“I have _not_ —“

“Yeah, yeah. I was sitting right next to you when you cried like an infant during Dolphin Tale 2. I’m not buying it.”

Doyoung looks like he’s about to scold Donghyuck, pointing a finger in his direction. But then he falters, exhaling and biting back an embarrassed grin. “...Okay that was _one_ time.”

“And my point still stands.”

“Whatever. Just try to keep it down. I don’t want dorm services being called on us.” Doyoung turns on his heel and clicks the door behind him, leaving them alone again. But soon the door is ajar again, and Doyoung pokes his head in. “I also suggest getting some cat toys for your pet. So it pounces on the toy and not Johnny? Something to think about.” He leaves again. 

A few moments of silence follow, save for quiet raindrops. 

“Wait, that’s actually really smart.” Mark purses his lips, turning to Donghyuck. “Too bad the self-proclaimed genius couldn’t figure that one out.” 

“I would smack you right now, but I don’t smack three-year-olds.” 

“That would sound horrifying out of context,” Johnny coughs. “And please just go make out already so I don’t have to hear you two bicker anymore. I can feel the migraine coming on.” With that, Johnny grabs a bulky pair of headphones from off the nightstand and resolves to his rest, cat curled up on his stomach. 

Heat rises on Mark’s cheeks, regardless of how long Johnny has been making jokes like those. “Sucks. I ate tobiko and now he won’t even look at me,” he huffs, though he definitely wasn’t heard. 

Donghyuck walks over to where Mark slouches in his chair and squishes his cheeks together between his pointer and thumb. He leans in close, millimeters away from their lips touching, enough to make Mark’s heart hammer in his chest, and murmurs, “Get up loser, we’re going shopping.” 

Mark quirks an eyebrow, puckering his lips out _just_ enough so that they touch for a fraction of a second. Donghyuck wails and pretends to dry heave, shrugging the raincoat back over his shoulders. “I’m diseased! If I get anisakiasis I’m breaking up with you!”

“If you get anus—what now?”

“I read an article last week about a lady in Busan who ate a parasite in a fish and she died from it. Serious stuff; you kissed me and now it’s possible I have a worm slithering around in my large intestine.” Mark can’t help but have a fond smile—noticing Donghyuck’s classic ‘I’m-making-a-joke-right-now-to-pretend-I-didn’t-like-that-kiss’ face. It’s more common than one would think.

Mark sighs with the shake of his head. “Sometimes I want to put restrictions on your phone.” 

Donghyuck tugs on Mark’s hand, leading him to the exit. “And sometimes I want to pour salt in your soda, but we can’t _all_ get what we desire, can we?”

“You’ve already done that.” 

“Touché.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hey hey! thank you so much for reading. comments, kudos; all that stuff is appreciated—any feedback makes me endlessly happy! have a fantastic day (and I highly recommend watching sailor moon) ;) !!


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